Opinion / Columnist
The African Democratic Party is ready to share its by-elections manifesto
16 Jun 2015 at 08:56hrs | Views
One of the problems that have destroyed our country Zimbabwe is of having politicians that are good at politicking but offering nothing to the electorate. We are having a lot of Member of Parliamentarians that are doing nothing both in Parliament and in their constituencies.
The electorate must move away from a culture of being bought by 1kg packet of rice and be able to elect their candidates on the basis of their manifesto, what the candidates are offering and the potential of the candidate.
The African Democratic Party's constituency manifesto was the major topic of discussion during the past by- elections. The manifesto, promises and the planning in the past by-elections were opposed to the usual ranting, chanting of slogans, being reminded about the past, the usual talk about entrepreneurship that ends up in every resident being vendors, vote buying and some small petty projects like roads rehabilitation that is meant to cause damage to the environment, being done to please the electorate.
In this country, one kilogram (I kg) of rice can convince a voter to decide where to put his/her vote. This is how poverty has eaten up our society. One doesn't need to go with genuine projects to the electorate but to use the 1kg strategy. It is also easy to convince our youths by just organizing an all night Gala, where the Zim- Dance Hall artists are invited to perform in a very cold night. This alone persuades our youths that here comes a leader who can provide solutions to their problems including employment creation.
The church has been holding endless prayers praying for the nation. Yes, it works they must continue to pray for our nation Zimbabwe but the change that the Christian community is anticipating will only come when they do participate in elections and not to leave politics to politicians. I don't know who lied to the Christian community that they are not supposed to be involved into politics. I wouldn't imagine how magnificent to be led by a God fearing man (Pastor) who is filled by the Spirit of God and automatically this will restore the moral value system, Hunhu and good governance thereby helping to fight corruption, greed and looting. If Pastors are not supposed to be involved in politics, why are we enjoying the gains of the liberation struggle whose architect involved some pastors who included Bishop Ndabaningi Sithole? So some of our pastors and the church in general have a great work to do and justify why they exist and they believe in God, Jehovah Yahweh. What about if a leader is born among them, when they are hanging on to their myths-, I think God must be God and people must be people as his ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts.
The African Democratic Party is going to push for a long term sustainable approach for development in our constituencies targeting Harare. The party is going to create developmental structures in the constituencies where a board will be set that is constituted with different stakeholders within the constituency. A fund will be set aside in each constituency under the Constituency Micro- Credit development scheme that will be managed by the set board. The fund will have an office within the constituencies and workers from the same constituencies. The fund will be revolving and act as a vehicle for startup and working capital for small businesses. However, to prevent the mistakes that was made during the Government of National Unity (GNU) where over 10 million Youth Fund was blown out under the Ministry of Youth, the party will make a data-base of all the small business in every constituency. These businesses will be classified into various clusters depending on their types and nature and will be registered into different companies (cooperatives) in order to access the Constituency Micro-credit scheme. The idea behind this concept is to enable the registered cooperatives/ companies to promote income savings and lending within the cooperatives. The cooperative will have the powers to borrow from the Constituency Micro-credit scheme and payback the interest and the amount borrowed over an agreed period of time. The registration of these small businesses is for easy management of the fund, monitoring and evaluation of the credits – revolving fund injected into the small scale business, to ensure business continuity due savings and lending at the cooperative level and for peer monitoring by the targeted groups .
A projection of $80 000 per constituency will amount to nearly $240 000 after one year. After, an agreed period of time, the community will identify pressing needs in the community, like pothole filling, road and streets rehabilitation, school return for the less privileged- orphans among other issues, and use some of the profits generated from the Constituency Micro-credit scheme to finance the different needs in the community.
One of the programs that the party strives to implement is to create a Health Insurance Scheme Fund at the constituency level. This model is aimed at countering the health problems that include shortages of finances to purchase drugs by the poor communities. This is a counter measure to the high influx of people from the formal employment to the informal sector due to retrenchment and also given short contracts without medical policies / medical aid. There are a lot of people in the informal sector that do not have medical aid. Such people will be targeted by this scheme to give hope and life. Like the Constituency Micro-credit scheme, the fund will be put under the management of a board and will have offices and employees. The business people in the informal sector will contribute their monthly premiums as agreed by the community. The Medical scheme will be linked to our clinics and hospitals in all the constituencies. This model is working well in countries like Tanzania and Kenya. I think these two models are going to help some of our MPs who are representing the people and who by now doesn't know what to do with Constituency Development Fund.
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Partners that are willing to work with us can contact Bishop Happison Chikova on happisonchikova@gmail.com / or +263772952857
The electorate must move away from a culture of being bought by 1kg packet of rice and be able to elect their candidates on the basis of their manifesto, what the candidates are offering and the potential of the candidate.
The African Democratic Party's constituency manifesto was the major topic of discussion during the past by- elections. The manifesto, promises and the planning in the past by-elections were opposed to the usual ranting, chanting of slogans, being reminded about the past, the usual talk about entrepreneurship that ends up in every resident being vendors, vote buying and some small petty projects like roads rehabilitation that is meant to cause damage to the environment, being done to please the electorate.
In this country, one kilogram (I kg) of rice can convince a voter to decide where to put his/her vote. This is how poverty has eaten up our society. One doesn't need to go with genuine projects to the electorate but to use the 1kg strategy. It is also easy to convince our youths by just organizing an all night Gala, where the Zim- Dance Hall artists are invited to perform in a very cold night. This alone persuades our youths that here comes a leader who can provide solutions to their problems including employment creation.
The African Democratic Party is going to push for a long term sustainable approach for development in our constituencies targeting Harare. The party is going to create developmental structures in the constituencies where a board will be set that is constituted with different stakeholders within the constituency. A fund will be set aside in each constituency under the Constituency Micro- Credit development scheme that will be managed by the set board. The fund will have an office within the constituencies and workers from the same constituencies. The fund will be revolving and act as a vehicle for startup and working capital for small businesses. However, to prevent the mistakes that was made during the Government of National Unity (GNU) where over 10 million Youth Fund was blown out under the Ministry of Youth, the party will make a data-base of all the small business in every constituency. These businesses will be classified into various clusters depending on their types and nature and will be registered into different companies (cooperatives) in order to access the Constituency Micro-credit scheme. The idea behind this concept is to enable the registered cooperatives/ companies to promote income savings and lending within the cooperatives. The cooperative will have the powers to borrow from the Constituency Micro-credit scheme and payback the interest and the amount borrowed over an agreed period of time. The registration of these small businesses is for easy management of the fund, monitoring and evaluation of the credits – revolving fund injected into the small scale business, to ensure business continuity due savings and lending at the cooperative level and for peer monitoring by the targeted groups .
A projection of $80 000 per constituency will amount to nearly $240 000 after one year. After, an agreed period of time, the community will identify pressing needs in the community, like pothole filling, road and streets rehabilitation, school return for the less privileged- orphans among other issues, and use some of the profits generated from the Constituency Micro-credit scheme to finance the different needs in the community.
One of the programs that the party strives to implement is to create a Health Insurance Scheme Fund at the constituency level. This model is aimed at countering the health problems that include shortages of finances to purchase drugs by the poor communities. This is a counter measure to the high influx of people from the formal employment to the informal sector due to retrenchment and also given short contracts without medical policies / medical aid. There are a lot of people in the informal sector that do not have medical aid. Such people will be targeted by this scheme to give hope and life. Like the Constituency Micro-credit scheme, the fund will be put under the management of a board and will have offices and employees. The business people in the informal sector will contribute their monthly premiums as agreed by the community. The Medical scheme will be linked to our clinics and hospitals in all the constituencies. This model is working well in countries like Tanzania and Kenya. I think these two models are going to help some of our MPs who are representing the people and who by now doesn't know what to do with Constituency Development Fund.
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Partners that are willing to work with us can contact Bishop Happison Chikova on happisonchikova@gmail.com / or +263772952857
Source - Bishop Happison Chikova
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